The floating waterfowl decoy has long been used by hunters to attract waterfowl. The use of decoys is imperative to a successful hunt, especially early in the season. Hunters have, however, long experienced problems using decoys; such as deployment, retrieval, and maintaining the decoys in a desired position while deployed in addition to storage and transportation difficulties. A typical hunter may deploy a decoy only to have the decoy tilt once deployed and fail to self-right. Various ballast means attached to the exterior have been employed in prior art decoys. Typically, however, such ballast protrudes from the decoy thereby frustrating both storage and transportation. Decoys are maintained in position by using anchors, attached to decoys by flexible anchor lines. Decoys in the prior art have required hunters to wrap anchor lines around decoys, often leading to entanglement, both upon deployment and upon retrieval. Prior art anchors often protrude from decoys, even when anchor lines are brought in and the anchor stowed, frustrating both storage and transportation similar to ballast and potentially marring or marking the finish on other decoys during storage and transportation. Prior art anchor lines are often of improper length and result in decoys not holding a desired pattern on the water surface. Later improvements employ various means of taking in anchor lines but many involve springs, metal components or other mechanisms subject to rust and corrosion that renders the decoys useless. Other prior art decoys require hunters to engage in the use of additional tools or implements to reel in or put out anchor line thus requiring the hunter to keep track of yet more equipment and hardware. Deployment and retrieval is made even more difficult by the fact that hunters often engage in this activity in pre-dawn or low light levels, regularly in cold and wet weather conditions.
Various attempts have been made to improve the waterfowl decoy. U.S. Pat. No. 1,789,649 employs a detent and gear to prevent an internal reel from rotating and playing out line after it has been set, and uses an enlarged nib and spring clip to hold the anchor. U.S. Pat. No. 1,951,424 uses a reel attached to a plate and anchor control mechanisms carried by the plate in one end of a chamber located in a decoy. U.S. Pat. No. 4,340,192 discloses a reel hung inside the body of a decoy, with a ratchet-like locking system of notches to engage a locking pin, which also serves as the release lever and line guide. U.S. Pat. No. 4,757,630 discloses a decoy anchoring mechanism with a detachable reel and weighted handle that is mounted vertically under the keel of a decoy using a pivoting cam and clamp assembly. U.S. Pat. No. 4,827,653 employs the use of a hollow keeled-decoy wherein an anchor reel mechanism is enclosed in the hollow keel, the anchor being retrieved by inserting a crank in one end of the reel and cranking to wind the anchor line on a spool, the anchor line being secured by a threaded plug inserted in the anchor housing. U.S. Pat. No. 6,487,811 and U.S. Pat. Appl. No. 2002/0157299 disclose a waterfowl decoy with a self-retracting anchor line characterized by a spring-actuated anchor line reel, the anchor trained through an opening in the breast section of the decoy, the anchor being secured by a lock member located in the breast opening.